Xenosophonts (Alien Races)

As terragen civilization spreads throughout the galaxy, it has encountered both living aliens and the remains of extinct aliens, some of which had once built vast empires but since vanished without a trace, indeed had been gone for millions of years before life even crawled up on dry land on Earth. Those who were expecting a galactic community of civilizations were disappointed. Space turned out to be empty and desolate, and aliens few and far between.

Not one single alien race has been found to be similar in physiology to any metazoan lifeform that originated on Earth, and the once popular panspermia hypothesis has long been shown to be invalid. This is not to say that former races did not engage in terraforming and provolve both their own local and other species, for some of them clearly did. And although a few alien sophont races have willingly joined the body of Galactic society, others aloof or reclusive, lack interest or are unable to understand such concepts.

Recent exploration has shown that some xenosophont empires, such as the Black Acropolis Builders, the Muuh at their height, and the "Auld Limners", were much more extensive than had previously been believed. This invites even more the question of how such mighty empires could remain for tens or hundreds of thousands of years, and then suddenly disappear, or - in the case of the Muuh and the Soft Ones, remain only as a few survivors on a single world. While speculation ranges from mass transcension to doomsday weapons and mysterious robot warships, consensus remains elusive.

Xenosophontology: Alien races, alien worlds and other topics concerning Intelligent Alien Life

Archivists - vanished builders of certain hi-tech objects
The Beacon Project - an attempt to contact extragalactic intelligence
Black Acropolis Builders -a vanished race of intelligent xenos, associated with the Dyson swarm which bears their name
Cthonids - a burrowing sophont species
Daharrans - a primitive but intelligent race with a tragic post-contact history
Dawn Hunters - apparently mythical entities from the galaxy's ancient past
Doreens - extinct xenosophont species named for the planet Doreen on which the remains of their civilization was discovered.
Deepwood - Deep space orwood species of probable alien origin
Dyglufsare - wetland dwelling species with high levels of intelligence
First Contact -strategies concerning the relations between Terragens and Xenosophons
Halogenics - The Halogenics are a hypothetical clade or group of clades, now believed to be extinct. They seeded a large number of chlorine worlds about 780 million years ago
The Hedrile - a presumably artificial wormhole of unknown design, origin and destination; it has not yet been traversed successfully.
Hildemar's Knots -lifeforms living on certain neutron stars, possibly artificial
The Hyraians - an extinct race which left behind human-like wall paintings
The Jacks- Gas Giant dwelling sophonts which apparently lie dormant for tens of millions of years
Jade Chime Singers - The affectionate, charming, musical, and hideous Jade Chime Singers are among the youngest and most exotic of the Terragen clades. They are the sole living example of a sapient clade from a chlorine world
The Jeepers of Mik's Planet - Descended from an alien terraforming swarm, this artificial species has become fully sophont
J'Ta'ush - xenosophont virch clade
Kemmerer a sentient ecology on a single world
Lignosagittiae - sub-sophont alien xenophylum found in the ice ocean of Fuego 485 ly from Earth
Limners - a remnant of a formerly powerful empire, this is a degenerate and mysterious race
Meistersingers - hi-tech, ancient migratory species
Menexenes - an exotic 'lifeform' existing in the metallic hydrogen core of a gas giant world
Mucoid Empire - alien civilization running on virtual environment on Panvirt ai cluster
Muuh ancient , slow-living cold world dwellers
Paulans - a primitive but intelligent race of water dwellers
Restorers - like the Dawn Hunters, a possibly mythical ancient race
Rheolithoids silicon based non-sentient 'lifeform'
The Search For Non-Terragen Intelligence the history of the search for intelligent life off Earth
Semblance of Eternity - disputed alien artifact
The Silent Ones - a highly advanced but solitary race which has confined itself to a single planetary system by choice
Singers - a race of water dwellers with some elements of advanced culture
Soft Ones - a race provolved by the Muuh into sapience, these are ammonia/water based cold world dwellers
Thyresta - extinct intelligent race
To'ul'hs - the first alien race to be discovered by Humanity, they live on a hot wet greenhouse world, and are now closely integrated into the Orion Arm Civilisation
To'ul'hian worlds - To'ul'hian worlds are an unusual variety of world named after the most famous of them, the homeworld of the To'ul'h. They might be regarded as a cool and wet version of the Cytherean type, or as very hot high-pressure Gaian worlds
Triangulum Transmission - a complex message from another galaxy, giving details of several alien races
The Ultimates - a static, genetically optimized phylum of sophonts inhabiting the Black Acropolis
The Wayfarers - an advanced race, so far known only in association with Meistersinger Fleets
Whisper - a sentient grass-like lifeform incorporating a complex virtual world

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